Can a no-growth future and capitalism be compatible?

author: Systemic Disorder

Is the era of economic growth over for advanced capitalist countries? If stagnation is what is on offer for the future, what does that portend?

Economic growth has been slowing in recent years, even before the economic meltdown that commenced in 2008. A recently published paper suggests that nearly all of the dramatic gains in standards of living, GDP growth and life expectancy that have occurred since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution had already occurred by the 1970s, and that those earlier inventions had vastly more impact than the Internet/computer/dot-com boom that arose in the mid-1990s.

A recently published study suggests that nearly all of the dramatic gains in standards of living, GDP growth and life expectancy that have occurred since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution had already occurred by the 1970s, and that those earlier inventions had vastly more impact than the Internet/computer/dot-com boom that arose in the mid-1990s. If the trend continues, growth would slow to no more than that of the Medieval era. If such a pattern does materialize, what would that mean for an economic order, capitalism, that is based on endless growth?